Authors
1 khorasgan
2 ahwaz joudishapur university
3 tarbiate modares university
Abstract
Introduction: In recent years, based on evidence from several communities, positive psychology
researchers have constructed a new conceptualization called “post-traumatic growth”. Based on the theory
of symbolic interaction, members of the society, especially family members, play an important role in
meaning making of events, quality of life after the accident and its consequences, and whether they
experience growth or not. The aim of the present study was decoding experiences of successful disabled
people of causing factors (facilitator) or barriers of growth by qualitative method.
Method: A qualitative design, based on the content analysis approach, was used to collect and analyze the
experiences of 12 disabled people with national and international achievements. Participants were selected
by purposeful and snowball sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection.
The data were analyzed based on the Granheim content analysis approach.
Results: The findings showed two main themes: 1) intelligent and noble family with 3 subcategories of
initial acceptance and support, interaction with other groups and successful disabled people, and timely
attraction and repulsion 2) family as obstacle with 3 subcategories of pity and clumsy support,
entertaining instead of being goal-oriented, and ignoring them.
Conclusion: Attitudes and family functions have wanted and unwanted effects. They may act as
facilitators or obstacles of growth. Understanding these factors based on experiences of disabled people
could cause effective changes in the attitudes and beliefs of people.
Keywords
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